Dr. Jacob-Ivan Eidt

Dr. Eidt received a B.A. in German and Philosophy with honors from the University
of Mississippi where he also taught elementary German. He received his M.A. from Die Katholische Universität Eichstätt in Bavaria in German literature (neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft), foreign language pedagogy (Didaktik des deutschen als Fremdsprache), and Philosophy. His M.A. thesis centered on allusions to Greek antiquity in Thomas
Mann’s Death in Venice and was directed by Thomas Mann scholar Dr. Ruprecht Wimmer.
While living and studying in Germany professor Eidt also worked as an interpreter,
a translator, a teacher of English, and in the German Department of Labor. He received
his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in Germanic Studies where he wrote
his dissertation on the poet Rainer Maria Rilke with the title: “Deus Absconditus:
Gnosticism, Secularization and Philosophical Modernity in Rilke” under the direction
of Swedish poet laureate Dr. Lars Gustafsson. In Austin Dr. Eidt also taught ESL through
the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua and the Fulbright Commission in cooperation with the Korean and Japanese school systems.
Prior to working at UD Dr. Eidt was a Visiting Assistant Professor of German at the
University of South Carolina in Columbia where he also taught in the Honors College.
Dr. Eidt has been active in the regional Modern Language Association serving on its
executive committee as German representative as well as on the board of Trustees of
the Dallas Goethe Center. He has also served as a Commissioner on the Advanced Placement
(AP) German Language Redesign Commission. Dr. Eidt is especially interested in German
intellectual history of the 19th century and the intersection of German music aesthetics and literature. In addition
to his German courses he also offers courses in Comparative Literary Traditions and
in the Branif graduate school.

Degrees/Education:

Ph.D., Germanic Studies, University of Texas at AustinM.A., German Literature, Didactics of German as a Foreign Language, and Philosophy,
Katholische Universität Eichstätt, GermanyB.A., German and a Philosophy, University of Mississippi

Courses Frequently Taught:

First Year German I-II, Second Year German I-II, German Literary Traditions I-II,
German for Reading Knowledge I-II, The German Novella, Wagner, The History of the
German Language, German Translation, Advanced German Grammar, German Civilization,
The Modern World.

Select Publications:

“Empathy of Sound and Sublimity of Sight: Music, Image, and the Kantian Sublime in
Werner Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness” Glossen 35 /2012

"Re-imagining the Other in Film: Alterity and the Musical Sublime in Werner Herzog’s
Fitzcarraldo." Film panel Annual Convention of the South Central Modern Language Association
(SCMLA) San Antonio, TX November 8 – 10, 2012